Vasquez Rocks

Stars—the celestial kind, anyway—are hard to come by in light-saturated L.A. The dusty near-desert town of Agua Dulce in the Antelope Valley is unbeatable for those who want to glimpse the heavens, particularly at Vasquez Rocks, where natural angular formations invite reclining. Though the park officially closes at 7 p.m., that doesn’t hold back the crowds who gather for meteor showers and comets. A bonus: The late-night freeways are as clear as the skies.